Japan - Tonchin Ramen, Ikebukuro; Komen Ramen, Harajuku.

Japanese food is not healthy, it is catholic.

Catholic as in broad-in-scope rather than capital "C" Catholic*. Healthy food is eaten as a matter of course rather than interfere with the making. The secret to good Tonkatsu ramen is fat. Fatty fat pork fat giving it its creamy deliciousness and delightful adipose globules. It is the Eastern cousin of the Cassoulet.

A goat recommended eatery in Ikebukero with the big shoes of the best ramen I had ever tasted. There was a queue. We had a couple of beers and watched in awe at the counter of some of the finest ramen kitchen performances we'd seen. The stock lovingly distributed into the bowls and the remaining bits of lard returned to the pot. Noodle strainers given a whiplike flip and constant shouting and repetition of greetings and orders. To say nothing of the complex personality dynamics - alpha man, side kick, the gimp, and then the obi-wan came out. The ramen? Superb. Ramen joy. I loved the soup and was impressed by the doneness of the eggs, with a slight gloss of life still in the yolk. Some dipute about it's actual name, possibly Tonchin, but there's a write-up in Tokyo Walker Plus

This place in Harajuku is another fave but I can't remember its name and can only say its across from Fujimama's - a kind of ex-pat lets do brunch fave spot.[It's "Komen" - thanks Chika!] A line to wait here as well but I found it a little underwhelming when we got in to find the cooks just quietly going about their business. They did have gyouza, which I'd been hankering for and when I tried one there was an audible food pornographic grunt. Nice. The ramen stock here tended more towards fish for its kicks and this usually comes from dried bonito shavings called katsuobushi (not to be confused with katsuoboushi - a kind of headpiece made to resemble a fish for certain ceremonies). Not quite as silkily pleasurable as tonkotsu ramen but the garlic chips were a nice touch we thought.



*No offense, I would find an all male culinary group run buy a septuagenarian who had never eaten, taking it's authority from a 2000 year old word of mouth cooking guide with most of the stuff written by the sous chefs, a dandy thing.